WASHINGTON — The U.S. is drafting in commercial aircraft to help transport people once they have been evacuated from Afghanistan, the Pentagon said Sunday.
The 18 aircraft, from United, American Airlines, Delta and Hawaiian Airlines would not fly into Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a statement.
Instead, he said they will be used for the "onward movement of passengers from temporary safe havens and interim staging bases."
That will allow military aircraft to focus on operations in and out of Kabul, Kirby added.
This would be only the third time the "Civil Reserve Air Fleet" has been activated. The first time was during the Gulf War in 1990 and then during the invasion of Iraq in 2002.
The first occurred in support of Operations Desert Shield/Storm between August 1990 and May 1991, and the second was for Operation Iraqi Freedom between February 2002 and June 2003.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said the program, established in 1951, is voluntary, and, in return, the participating carriers are given preference in carrying commercial peacetime cargo and passenger traffic for the Department of Defense.
"We've now asked through authority that the president has, airlines, to help participate in moving people not out of Kabul, but from these third country sites where we are taking them as we finish processing them, going through security checks," Secretary of State Antony Blinken told "Fox News Sunday." "We've reached agreement with about two dozen countries over four continents who are now helping or soon going to help with the transit of people out of Kabul and this is one way to make sure we have enough flight capacity to move people from those places to their ultimate destinations."
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the activation of the initial stage of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program amid chaotic scenes in Kabul, where thousands of people are continuing to try and escape life under Taliban rule.
"For decades, Delta has actively played a role in supporting the US Military and our troops," John Laughter, executive vice president and chief of operations at Delta, said in a statement. "And we are again proud to pledge Delta people and our aircraft in support our country’s relief efforts."
Additionally, United CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement that the airline embraces "the responsibility to quickly respond to international challenges like this one — it’s a duty we take with the utmost care and coordination as we call upon the expertise of several different teams within our airline to work in close partnership with the U.S. military to safety execute this operation."
The U.S. has now moved 25,100 people out of Afghanistan since last Sunday when the Taliban took control of Kabul, a White House official said Sunday.
But thousands of people are still waiting to be evacuated from the city's airport as the security situation in and around the area continues to deteriorate, with reports of stampedes and gunfire. The U.K. government said Sunday that seven people had died after being crushed in the crowds around the airport.
Speaking with ABC's "This Week," Austin said the U.S. is "going to try our very best to get everybody, every American citizen, who wants to get out, out."
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There is also increasing concern about the security in the Afghan capital, where roughly 5,800 U.S. troops are protecting the airport.
"At the moment, we believe we have sufficient forces on the ground," Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "But every single day, the president asks his military commanders, including those at the airport and those at the Pentagon, whether they need additional resources, additional troops. So far, the answer has been no. But he will ask again today."
President Joe Biden on Friday, vowed to get Americans home and help Afghans who had assisted U.S. forces in the country and others who might be in danger in what he called "one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history."
But time is running out ahead of his Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw most remaining U.S. troops and he has not committed to extending it.
Sullivan said there remain "roughly a few thousand" Americans in the country.
"So, we have been working for the past few days to get fidelity on as precise a count as possible," he said. "We have reached out to thousands of Americans by phone, email, text. And we are working on plans to, as we get in touch with people, give them direction for the best and most safe and most effective way for them to get into the airport."
Speaking with CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said the U.S. is "in a better place than we were a week ago" when it comes to Afghanistan.
"That doesn't mean we're in a good spot," he added.
Courtney Kube reported from Washington, Yuliya Talmazan from London and Allan Smith from New York.
Josh Lederman and Winston Wilde contributed.
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